Backlog Puts Building Division In Crisis

Fort Lauderdale Will Allow Private Sector To Do Inspections

FORT LAUDERDALE — The city's Building Department declared itself in crisis this week, admitting that staff cannot keep up with the workload intensified by a building boom and hurricane damage.

Builders have long complained that their inability to quickly obtain permits cost them millions of dollars, and homeowners complained the Building Department's backlog delayed crucial repairs.

After years of such criticism -- complaints that intensified after Hurricane Wilma last year -- Fort Lauderdale this week agreed to give up its role in inspecting construction work. That will allow builders and residents the option of paying private engineers and architects to conduct inspections. In those cases, city inspectors would follow up later with inspection audits.

City Manager George Gretsas told an angry crowd of builders in City Hall on Wednesday that the emergency measures comprise "a pilot program."

"If it results in shoddy construction or unsafe conditions, we're going to have to re-evaluate it," Gretsas said.

Gretsas released the plan Wednesday to about 50 angry contractors, architects and others in the construction industry who descended on City Hall and demanded change.

"I figured this meeting would be like a scene from Young Frankenstein, with people holding their flaming torches," contractor Scott Strawbridge said of the meeting. "And it's not too far from that, because we're at wits' end."

Back in the day, John Fitzgerald camped out for concert tickets. Now, that's what he has to do for building permits.

"We're now at the building department at 5 in the morning," the local building contractor vented Wednesday. "At 9:15 in the morning, they're closed for the day -- no more numbers issued."

According to recent e-mails and letters to City Hall that the city released to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and residents and builders who were in the meeting:

All projects in Fort Lauderdale, from a new door to a new townhouse, take weeks or months longer than they should, and homebuyers are delayed months from closing on their homes or moving in. City employees lose plans and treat customers rudely. They no longer give a quick "walk-through" inspection to people who need a permit for a small job such as a fence.

When work is done, the city often takes weeks to come inspect it, causing contractors and sub-contractors to lose money in loan interest and idle time for their workers, builders said. They also complained that the city requires excessive paperwork.

"This really is a train wreck waiting to happen," former Assistant City Manager Pete Witschen wrote in an e-mail to the Building Department after he tried getting permits for a generator at his house in March.

"How can the city be so unresponsive to its citizens?" wrote a widowed mother who waited four months for a generator permit to make life "less stressful for myself and my son."

Fort Lauderdale's unusual move to delegate inspection power goes far beyond what the Broward County Board of Rules and Appeals, which oversees building departments, recently authorized.

That board in April passed an emergency measure allowing people to use private inspectors rather than city inspectors, but only for roof repairs. Many cities, including Sunrise, Coconut Creek, Coral Springs and Plantation, adopted the policy.

But officials with the Rules and Appeals agency said they reviewed Fort Lauderdale's more drastic plan, which applies to slabs, columns, doors, foundations and many more jobs, and felt comfortable with it.

"This is just the emergency situation that's developed since Hurricane Wilma that's thrown Fort Lauderdale into a very bad situation," said Rules and Appeals structural expert Bill Dumbaugh.

Builders who demanded relief are pleased with the changes. Still, one builder said, there is potential for it to backfire.

"I get to hire my own engineer or architect. How about if he's a buddy of mine and he signs off on it, and there's not enough steel in it?" said Donato Mosucci of ORSO Construction Inc. "You come three weeks later, and the concrete is already poured. What are you going to do then?"

Building departments across the county are inundated with requests for permits and inspections for hurricane repairs from last year's Hurricane Wilma. In recent months, money from insurance claims came in, and people flooded building departments with work.

Coral Springs director of development services Larry Staneart said he has nearly issued as many permits as last year and it's only June.

"We have a couple plan reviewers working almost 80 hours a week," he said.

Coral Springs recently agreed to raise salaries so employees would not quit for higher paying private jobs. Its Building Department also prioritized roof permits, so there's a five-day turnaround.

"We're into the rainy season and people still have the blue tarps. We want to make sure their property is protected as fast as possible," Staneart said.